


Power of Love

by TheCaillic



Category: Back to the Future (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Mother-Daughter Relationship, OC Focused, Swearing, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:34:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25970656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCaillic/pseuds/TheCaillic
Summary: Go to your uncle's house for the night, she said. It'll be fine, she said.In hindsight, Tessa really should have expected something like this. It was her uncle for Christ's sake. But how could she have possibly expected time travel?!Now she's stuck 30 years in the past with a wannabe rockstar and her aforementioned mad uncle.
Relationships: Marty McFly/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 20
Kudos: 20





	1. Get Louder!

BEEP BEEP BEEP

_ Shut up… _

BEEP BEEP BEEP

_ Bleeding Hell! _

A seventh-year-old girl tossed around in bed. Maybe she was hoping the alarm would suddenly stop working and she would have an excuse to stay in bed for the rest of the day. To her, it would be the perfect plan. Well, it would be... if it wasn't for one person.

“Would you turn off the damn alarm!” 

The girl groaned at the voice of her mortal enemy coming from the other room. She finally turned towards the beeping clock and slammed her hand down on it. 

"Fucking idiot kid."

She sat from her bed and kinda just stared at the wall for a minute. Mentally preparing herself for the day to come.

“Alright, let’s get this shitshow rolling,” she said to herself. 

After getting dressed, she made her way into the kitchen where her mother was making breakfast. 

“Morning Baby Girl.” her mother said in an over-affectionate tone. 

“Morning, Mom,” Tessa replied less happily. The woman stopped cooking for a second and went over to her daughter. She gave her a hug and friendly peck on the cheek. 

“Stoop, I have a reputation to keep.” The younger girl joked.

Her mother simply gave a sarcastic laugh.

Eileen Thomson, once sweet girl with a bright future. Now a forty-eight-year-old woman with messy greying hair and tired eyes. Eileen spent most of her days in the Thomson apartment. Desperately trying to find something to do while her daughter and husband are out of the house.

“You better head out before your father gets into one of his moods,” Eileen said, letting her daughter escape from the hug. “OH, and could you do me a favour and get milk on your way home tonight?”

“Sure, Mom.” The girl said as she made a makeshift bacon and egg sandwich for herself.

“Thank you, Tessa,” Eileen said while rushing her daughter out the door. Tessa said a quick goodbye before leaving. 

Tessa started tiptoeing down the hall. Hopefully, if she was quiet enough, she could sneak right by that damn woman’s door.

“Stand up, straight girl!” 

_ Bleeding Hell! Did that woman have a radar or something? _

“Yes, Ms Strickland,” Tessa said but kept walking. She learnt a long time ago to always give Edna Strickland basic answers and walk away. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck there for hours (maybe for the rest of your life, who knows). 

“And wipe that gunk off your face!” she tacked on, referring to Tessa’s dark makeup.

“Yes, Ms Strickland.” 

“I honestly don’t know what your mother is thinking when she lets you out.” Edna continued ranting. “If we were family-” 

_ If we were family, I’d neck myself. _

Tessa didn’t bother listening to the end of Edna’s sentence. It had basically been the same stupid speech every day for the last ten years. Always finding something to complain about. 

When Tessa got outside, she blocked out the sounds of Edna screaming at passersby with that bloody bullhorn of hers and started heading to school.

It felt a little sad to say out loud, but walking to school was probably one of Tessa’s favourite parts of the day. Just to be clear; it wasn't because she was happy to go to school. She hated school just as much as she hated home. Tessa just enjoyed the short period where she could listen to music and didn’t worry about much else. 

“Morning Red,” Tessa said as she passed by the homeless man’s usual bench. He simply gave her a nod of acknowledgement. She made sure to slip a ten-dollar bill into the hat sitting next to the man. She always did little things that she knew would piss off James. Of course, her dear old dad never saw her doing something like this, but you know, it was the intent that counts. 

By the time she got to school, she was about ten minutes late, and yet another Strickland was waiting for her. 

“Miss Thomson, late again, I see.”

“Yes, Mr Strickland,” Tessa replied in the same deadpan way when talking to Mr Strickland’s sister. Strickland proceeded to lecture her about all the same things the older Strickland did earlier while dragging her through the school.

At some point, Tessa heard voices coming around the corner. Strickland must have heard them too because he started rushing towards the sounds while still holding onto her shoulder.

“Y'know this time it wasn't my fault. The Doc set all of his clocks twenty-five minutes slow.” 

“Doc? Am I to understand you're still hanging around with Doctor Emmett Brown, McFly? Tardy slip for you, Miss Parker. And one for you McFly I believe that makes four in a row. Now let me give you a nickel's worth of advice, young man. This so-called Doctor Brown is dangerous, that whole family is full of real nutcases. You hang around with him, and you're gonna end up in big trouble. Just look at his niece if you need any more proof.“ Strickland gestured to Tessa for emphasis. 

Tessa found herself biting her lip in order not to argue back at the teacher’s comments. She didn’t exactly have a great relationship with her uncle, but that didn’t give Strickland the right to talk about her family like that. 

The kid ( _ what's his name, McFly? _ ) looked over to her with a raised eyebrow. 

“She looks fine to me.” 

Strickland suddenly shoved Mcfly.

“You got a real attitude problem, McFly. You're a slacker. You remind me of your father when he went here, he was a slacker too.”

McFly looked just about as pissed off as Tessa felt. 

“Can I go now, Mr Strickland?”

“I noticed your band is on the roster for dance auditions after school today. Why even bother McFly, you haven't got a chance, you're too much like your own man. No McFly ever amounted to anything in the history of Hill Valley.”

How did this man become a teacher? Tessa couldn’t tell you. Hell, I couldn’t tell you.

“Yeah, well, history is gonna change,” McFly replied without breaking eye contact with his teacher. Tessa had to admit seeing someone stand up to Strickland like that put a smile on her face. 

Tessa’s mind just wasn’t working for most of the day. It all just drifted by at what felt like a snail's pace.

That was until the school dance auditions at the end of the day. Tessa wasn’t planning on auditioning, but sticking around and maybe hearing some decent music instead of going home straight away sounded pretty good in her mind.

About halfway through the auditions, Tessa noticed that one of the bands seemed to be panicking a bit. A girl walked over to them and they talked for a little bit until the girl, who Tessa recognized as Jennifer Parker, started waving at her.

At first, Tessa didn’t realise she was waving at her to come over. She awkwardly pointed at herself and mouthed ‘me?’

Jennifer nodded her head, and Tessa rushed over.

“You’re Tessa, right?” She asked.

“Ummm, yeah that’s me.” 

“I heard you playing drums after school. Do you mind doing a favour for my friends ?”

“Depends?”

“Well you see, their drummer Lee went home sick. So they need another drummer for the audition.”

Tessa thought about it for a second. She had been playing the drums for a couple of years by that point. But had never played in front of other people before.

“Ahhh, What the hell. Why not?”

“Next, please.” The sound of one of the judges calling out to them made Tessa jump a little.

Everyone moved towards the stage. One of the other guys told Tessa what song to play while setting up for the audition. At some point, Tessa looked towards the judges. They all seemed to be completely dead inside.

“Alright, we're the Pinheads.“ McFly  _ (first name Mark I think) _ awkwardly said to the judges. Excellent band name by the way.

The next part was… anticlimactic, to say the least. The lot of them had just really started to get into the song when the same judge who called them up before stopped them.

“Okay, that's enough. Now stop the microphone. I'm sorry fellas. I'm afraid you're just too darn loud. Next, please. Where's the next group, please.”

Too Loud. Come on, they didn’t even give them a real chance. Tessa felt her shoulders slump. She had to admit that she felt kinda disappointed. 

Tessa left the gym in just as bad of a mood as when she entered. So much for playing in front of people for the first time. 

When she made it to the town square, she noticed McFly ( _ his name is some starting with M, dammit! _ ) dragging his feet. She didn’t know why, but she decided to try and talk to him. 

“Hey McFly.” 

The guy jumped back in surprise. 

“Oh hey Tessa.”  _ Lovely Tessa. He managed to remember your name, and he only met you once! _

“I really liked your playing today,” Tessa gave him a smile. “Wish I could have heard the whole thing.”

“You don’t mean that.” 

“Do too!” Tessa argued back. “It was very Van Halen.”

Tessa saw his mouth smile for a second, but he quickly shook it off. 

“I'm too loud. I can't believe it. I feel like I’m never gonna get a chance to play in front of anybody.”

“Nah those guys just have sticks stuck up their arses. I’m sure they're a ton of people who would love to hear you play.”

“Nah, I just don't think I'm cut out for music.”

“I’m sure that’s not true. You just gotta put yourself out there.”

“Alright, okay. Let's say I do that. I mean, what if people say I'm no good. What if they say, 'Get out of here, kid, you got no future.' I mean, I just don't think I can take that kind of rejection. Jesus, I'm beginning to sound like my old man.”

“You can’t let the fear of rejection get the better of you. Trust me, you’ll be glad that you tried instead of not trying at all.”

McFly looked like he was thinking about what Tessa was saying until he spotted something nearby by. 

“Check out that four by four. That is hot.”

Tessa stopped at the edge of the grass and turned to look at the tricked-out four-by-four pickup truck in the showroom. Tessa had to admit, despite knowing next to nothing about cars and trucks, it was a pretty good looking vehicle. 

“Nice,” Tessa said while nodding her head. Tessa turned back to keep talking to McFly, only to get surprised by a random woman.

“Save the clock tower, save the clock tower. Mayor Wilson is sponsoring an initiative to replace that clock. Thirty years ago, lightning struck that clock tower, and the clock hasn't run since. We at the Hill Valley Preservation Society think it should be preserved exactly the way it is as part of our history and heritage.”

Tessa just stood there for a second. She never liked it when people snuck up on her. It freaked her out. McFly must have noticed how uncomfortable she was because he moved to talk to the lady. 

“Here you go, lady. There's a quarter.”

“Thank you, don't forget to take a flyer.” she smiled while handing a small blue flyer to him. 

“Right.” McFly turned back to Tessa. “Tessa, you okay?”

Tessa snapped out of whatever trance she was in.

“I’m fine, thanks.” Tessa suddenly remembered the milk she was supposed to get before going home along with another important piece of information.

“Marty!” She suddenly remembered his name. And just shouted it out, like an idiot.

“Ummm yep.” He said, clearly surprised by her outburst. 

“Oh umm well I,” Tessa stuttered for a second, then took a breath. “I would love to hear you play again sometime, but I have to get home soon.”

Marty seemed to perk up at the thought of playing for someone. 

“Sure, can I get your number.”

Tessa grabbed the flyer and scribbled some numbers on it. 

When going to pass the flyer back to Marty he took the pen out of Tessa’s hand and scratched some more numbers on the back of her hand.

“See you around then?” She asked. 

“Sure thing.”

They waved goodbye to one another and went their separate ways.

After wasting some time at the drugstore, Tessa finally started heading back home. When she got back inside she realized that no one was home.

“Nice.” Tessa said as she moved to put the milk in the fright

As she closed the door she spotted the numbers on the back of her hand. It had been a long time since she had given someone her number, and it was the first time she had been given someone else's number. 

_ Is it too soon to call? It had been like an hour, right? Are you supposed to wait for them to call? Bleeding Hell.  _

Tessa thought about it for another couple of seconds. Then she remembered back to what she said to Marty.  _ You’ll be glad that you tried instead of not trying at all.” _

Tessa moved over to the phone and punched in the number. A girl whose voice Tessa didn’t recognize answered. 

“Who is it?”

“Oh ummm, it is Marty’s house?

“Yeah, who are you?”

“My name’s Tessa Thomson. Is Marty there?”

“He’s busy.” 

“Well, could you let him know that I called?”

“Sure whatever.”

Before Tessa could thank the girl she hung up. When did Tessa's hands get so sweaty? 

Tessa let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. She started aimlessly pacing around the apartment. At some point she walked by the coffice table, and noticed an opened photo adlum. Tessa kneeled down and started flipping through the pages. One of the pictures caught her eye. It was a polaroid of her and mother standing on Santa Monica beach. It was the only time she had ever left Hill Valley. Tessa pulled it out of the sleeve to take a closer look.

Suddenly there was a click at the door, and Tessa’s mother walked in with her arms filled with grocery bags.

“Hey, Baby Girl.” Tessa didn’t like the way she said that. She was trying too hard to sound casual. 

“Hey Mom, is everything okay?” Tessa asked. Eileen started rushing around the apartment putting food away along with cleaning everything off the tables.

“Everything is fine Sweetie. Your father is just having a couple of coworkers over for poker. So I needed to grab some stuff.”

“Come on, really?” Tessa let out a loud groan of annoyance. James was a complete prick at the best of times, but his coworkers made everything ten times worse. 

“So Sweetie, I thought that you could go spend the night at your uncle's place.” Eileen was still trying too hard to stay calm. 

“I dunno, Mom. Maybe I should just stay here with you?”

“No no no, there’s no need to do that!” Just go to Emmett’s place, and come back in the morning.”

The two of them just stood there, staring at each other for a while. Tessa was silently debating whether to do what her mother said. 

“It’ll be fine Sweetie.”

“Sure, Mom.” 

“Thanks, Baby Girl. Say hi to Einstein for me.” Eileen said while wrapping Tessa up in a tight hug for a second. “Go get your stuff.”

Tessa went over to her bedroom and grabbed her backpack along with a pair of old skates. Tessa simply gave her mother a nod and walked right back out the front door.

When she got outside, she slipped the skates on and started rolling down the street to her uncle's house. Well, ‘house’ isn’t the word Tessa would use to describe it. The place looked more like a tiny storage unit for all the crazy projects her uncle liked to create. 

When she got there, Tessa checked the door which must have been left unlocked earlier in the day.

“Einie? Uncle Emmett? Anyone home?”

It had been almost two years since she had last been to the place, and honestly, it hadn’t changed much. It was still filled to the brim with equipment that had been accumulated over… well, who knows how long. The gear included a jet engine, piles of circuit boards, enough automobile parts to build at least two, maybe three cars, a short-wave radio, a jukebox of all things, remnants of a robot, and a shit ton of clocks.

Out of the abundance of things to look at, the first two things Tessa noticed was a blown up speaker in the middle of the room, and a sizable pile of dog food on the floor.

_ Come on Uncle Em. _

Tessa moved to pick up the dirty dog bowl and went outside to throw the old food and cans in the garbage. 

When she got back inside, she locked the front door behind her and moved to the study room to sit in a large red armchair. 

Tessa thought back to the last time she was there. It was Christmas? No, it was Halloween. James didn’t like celebrating Christmas. He said it was a waste of money. Which was rich coming from him. Tessa doesn’t even remember why they came to visit that day. She thought that maybe it had something to do with inheritance.

Despite living in the same town Tessa’s mother and uncle barely ever talked. When she was a kid James used to say that being around Emmett would have a bad effect on their daughter. That was bullshit of course, just like how most of what he said was total crap. 

Unfortunately, her mother was in no place to argue. James had too much of a tight hold on their lives at that point. Eileen was in constant fear of what her husband would do if she tried leaving.

Tessa hated it. She hated every single thing about that man. She would often day dream about running away from Hill Valley with her mother. Moving up the coast or something.

While in the middle of her daydreaming she was suddenly brought back to reality by the sound of someone unlocking the front door. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to Power of Love. A new story that I should not be starting, but hey…. I have no excuse.
> 
> If you wanna see more stuff for Tessa or my other OCs check out @thecaillic
> 
> Feedback is adored and I will risk my life for you.


	2. What the Actual Hell!

Tessa jumped up from the armchair and made her way towards the door. She was expecting her uncle to walk through the door. To her surprise, it was actually Marty of all people. 

“What are you doing here?” The two of them asked at the same time.

“I’m here to pick up a camera for Doc. What about you?” 

Tessa felt the hair’s on the back of her head shoot up. 

“Is it illegal to visit family?” She didn’t mean to sound annoyed, but she didn’t want to tell Marty the real reason she was hiding out there. 

“You can come with me if you wanna see Doc?” He asked.

Tessa thought about it for a second. 

“Are you sure?” She asked.

“I don’t see why not,” Marty said while shrugging his shoulders.

“Just let me grab my skates.”

Marty gave her a thumbs up and moved to grab the camera. Marty met her outside, and Tessa started following him to wherever the heck they were going. 

Turns out the heck they were going to was the Twin Pines Mall.

“Do you have any idea about what’s going on?” Tessa.

“Nope, no idea.”

The two teens moved towards the middle of the empty parking lot, where a van, marked ‘Dr. E. Brown Enterprises’ was parked. 

Tessa looked around for a second before spotting Einstein sitting near the van.

“Hey, Einstein. How’s it going, boy?” Tessa said as she rushed over and started scratching Einstein behind the ears.

“Where's the Doc, boy, huh? Doc?” Marty said, leaning down next to Tessa to pet Einstein.

His question was immediately answered when a loud sound coming from the van caught their attention.

Tessa and Marty both rose to their feet and watched as a smoking sports car rolled out of the van.

Marty and Tessa glanced at each other for a second before looking back to the car.

To be completely honest, Tessa didn’t get it. What could her uncle possibly be doing with a second hand DeLorean and video camera?

The two teens rushed around the car to see an old man hopping out of the front seat. 

Marty tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention.

“Doc?!”

“Marty!” He said in an excited tone. He then noticed Tessa standing behind his assistant.

“Tessa! I’m so glad they both of you made it!” Her uncle said while patting them both of the shoulders. “Welcome to my latest experiment. It's the one I've been waiting for all my life.”

“Um, well it's a Delorean, right?” Marty asked. He seemed to be just as confused as Tessa was.

“Bare with me, Marty, all of your questions will be answered. Roll tape, we'll proceed.” Doc said while pushing Marty over to the left of the car.

“What’s with the haz-“ Tessa asked while crossing in front of the camera to stand next to Marty.

“Never mind that now, never mind that now.” Her uncle interrupted.

“Alright, I'm ready,” Marty said.

“Good evening, I'm Doctor Emmett Brown. I'm standing on the parking lot of Twin Pines Mall. It's Saturday morning, October 26, 1985, 1:18 a.m., and this is temporal experiment number one.”

Marty lifted his hand to check his watch, and Tessa leaned over to do the same.

Doc called Einstein over.

“C'mon, Einy, hey hey boy, get in there, that a boy, in you go, get down, that's it.”

“I don’t like where this is going…” Tessa said while nervously fiddling with her hands.

“Please note that Einstein's clock is in complete synchronization with my control watch.” 

“Right check, Doc,” Marty said while moving to get a better shot of the two clocks.

“Good. Have a good trip, Einstein, watch your head.” Doc closed the door and starting 

“You have this thing hooked up to the car?” 

“Watch this. Not me, the car, the car.”

_ That’s not it, is it? _

Tessa asked herself. Surely the experiment her uncle ‘been waiting for all his life’ isn’t just connecting a car to a remote?

Doc suddenly pulled them away from the van to stand closer to the car.

“If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits eighty-eight miles per hour, we’re gonna see some serious shit.”

Tessa just gave her uncle a confused look and watched as he started revving the vehicle.

She felt her body freeze up as she watched the car start speeding towards them. Tessa knew that she should have moved out of the way, but it was like one of those moments where your brain doesn’t react fast enough, and you just don’t know why.

The Delorean got closer and closer. Before Tessa could process it, there was a blinding flash. The bright light caused Tessa to cover her eyes with arms. She waited for the car to hit, but there was just nothing. 

Tessa slowly lowered her arms back to her sides.

“HA, what did I tell you, eighty-eight miles per hour. The temporal displacement occurred at exactly 1:20 a.m. and zero seconds!” 

What the hell? What the hell? WHAT the HELL?!

“Ah Jesus,” Marty said as he tried picking up the licence plate that fell off the Delorean. “Doc, you disintegrated Einstein!”

“You murdered him?!” Tessa shouted angrily.

“Calm down, you two, I didn't disintegrate or murder anything. The molecular structure of Einstein and the car are completely intact.” Doc said while pulling a pen out of his pocket to jot down some notes.

“Where the heck are they?” Marty asked in a panicked tone.

“The appropriate question is when the heck are they. Einstein has just become the world's first time-traveller. I sent him into the future. One minute into the future to be exact. And at exactly 1:21 a.m. we should catch up with him and the time machine!”

“What the hell are you talking about?!” Tessa could feel her anger rising. She was having trouble processing what was going on and her uncle acting so cheery about it wasn’t helping.

“Wait a minute, wait a minute, Doc, are you telling me that you built a time machine... out of a Delorean?”

_ I feel like I’m losing my damn mind! _

“The way I see it if you're gonna build a time machine into a car why not do it with some style. Besides, the stainless, steel construction made the flux dispersal-“

Doc’s watch suddenly started beeping.

“Look out!”

Doc once again pulled the two teens along with him and the Delorean reappeared in a similar flash of light.

For the second time that night, Tessa felt her whole body freeze up. The three of them just stood there for a while. Staring at the time machine. Doc was the first to start moving towards it. He reached towards the door handle, but pulled back and hissed with pain when touching it.

“What, what is it hot?” Marty asked. 

“It's cold, cold.” Doc used his foot to open the door. 

“Ha, ha, ha, Einstein, you little devil. Einstein's clock is exactly one minute behind mine, it's still ticking.” He undid the seat belt, and Einstein rushed over to Tessa and Marty.

“Hey Einy, it’s okay boy,” Tessa started to check and see if Einstein did have any injuries. You can never be too careful when it comes to this kind of thing. 

“He's alright,” Marty said, a little shocked.

“He's fine, and he's completely unaware that anything happened. As far as he's concerned the trip was instantaneous. That's why Einstein's watch is exactly one minute behind mine. He skipped over that minute to instantly arrive at this moment in time. Come here, I'll show you how it works.”

Tessa and Marty followed Doc over to the car while the scientist started talking like a little kid explaining their new favourite hobby. 

Einstein decided to run back to the safety of the van. He had enough adventure for one day.

While pressing some buttons, Doc explained how the machine worked. He went through the most vital parts and explained how to tell where you're going, where you are and where you were. He continued on giving examples of where you could go.

“Here's a red-letter date in the history of science, November 5, 1955. Yes, of course, November 5, 1955.”

“What’s so special about that day?” Tessa asked.

“That was the day I invented time travel. I remember it vividly. I was standing on the edge of my toilet hanging a clock, the porcelain was wet, I slipped, hit my head on the edge of the sink.”

“I think Mom told me about that. She said her heart was beating so fast she felt like it was going to explode.” Tessa said, explaining to Marty.

Tessa vaguely remembers her mother telling her the story of when she came home from school to find her older brother lying on the floor bleeding from the head. Fortunately, she didn’t find any significant damage.

Doc nodded his head, indicating that what Tessa said was true.

“When I came to, I had a revelation, a picture, a picture in my head, a picture of this. This is what makes time travel possible. The flux capacitor.”

“The flux capacitor?” Marty and Tessa asked at the same time.

“It's taken me almost thirty years, and my entire family fortune to realize the vision of that day, my god has it been that long. Things have certainly changed around here. I remember when this was all farmland as far as the eye could see. Old man Peabody owned all of this. He had this crazy idea about breeding pine trees.” 

“I don’t think you have any right to call someone else old.” Tessa smiled.

“This is uh, this is heavy-duty, Doc, this is great. Uh, does it run on regular unleaded gasoline?”

“There’s no way. Gasoline wouldn’t have enough power,” Tessa said.

“Tessa’s right, it requires something with a little more kick, plutonium.”

“Say what now?” 

“Uh, plutonium, wait a minute, are you telling me that this sucker's nuclear?” Marty said, nearly dropping the camera.

“Hey, hey, keep rolling, keep rolling there. No, no, no, no, this sucker's electrical. But I need a nuclear reaction to generate the one point twenty-one gigawatts of electricity that I need.”

Okay, Tessa was getting lost again.

“Doc, you don't just walk into a store and ask for plutonium. Did you rip this off?”

“Of course,” Doc said.

“Who did you rip it from?” Tessa asked.

“From a group of Nationalists. They wanted me to build them a bomb, so I took their plutonium and in turn gave them a shiny bomb case full of used pinball machine parts.”

“Ohh boy.” Tessa worried.

“Let's get you two into radiation suits, we must prepare to reload.”

After a quick change, Marty and Tessa watched Doc load the next tube of plutonium in the Delorean. It dropped into the fuel tank with a surprising loud thunk. 

“Safe now, everything's led lined. Don't you lose those tapes now, we'll need a record.” Doc said to Marty while putting the empty tube back in a yellow box.

Tessa pulled the top of her suit off her head and took a breath. It was stuffy in that thing, she guessed that was better than having her face melted off, or whatever plutonium does to you.

“Whoop! I almost forgot my luggage. Who knows if they've got cotton underwear in the future. I'm allergic to all synthetics.”

“The future, it's where you're going?” Marty asked.

“That's right, twenty-five years into the future. I've always dreamed of seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.” 

“It’s good to know you have your priorities in order.”

“Uh Doc, look me up when you get there.”

“Indeed I will roll em.” 

“Well, good luck I guess.” Tessa said while folding her arms. It started to get cold all the sudden.

Doc kept talking to the camera for a little while. At some point, Tessa heard Einstein start to bark wildly. 

“What’s the matter Einy?” Tessa asked. As she said it, Tessa saw a van heading towards them, out of the corner of her eye.

“Oh my god, they found me, I don't know how but they found me. Run for it, kids!” Doc yelled.

“Who do you think, the Libyans!” 

Tessa watched as one of the men in the Station Wagon pulled out a bloody rifle.

“What the hell!” Tessa said as she ducked near the car. 

“Holy shit!” Marty yelled, falling next to Tessa. 

The men started shooting at them. Tessa covered her eyes, due to the fear and shock from being shot at. 

“I’ll draw their fire!” Doc shouted as he grabbed a gun from one of the boxes.

“Uncle Emmett!” Tessa yelled out. 

Everything suddenly then stopped. Tessa looked to see her uncle with his hands up in the air. He tossed the gun on the ground. It somehow felt like the longest yet the quickest couple of seconds in Tessa's life. 

The silence ended when the gunshots started up again. Tessa closed her eyes, and when she reopened them, she was met with a horrible sight.

Doc was lying on the ground covered in bullet holes. Tessa let out a horrified scream. Marty started throwing curses at the men, which caused the one with the gun to start firing them. 

Tessa quickly rolled around the Delorean for cover. Marty headed towards the van, but after a couple of seconds ran towards the Delorean and jumped into the driver's seat. Tessa followed suit. Not wanting to get run over if he drove off.

Tessa closed her eyes and tried to bring her breathing back to normal. This wasn’t easy due to how hard her heart was beating. Along with Marty was driving like a total manic. Tessa started gripping the edges of her seat as Marty started making sharpe turns around the parking lot. 

At some point Tessa made the mistake of opening one of her eyes, only to see a freaking grenade launcher. Tessa didn’t even scream at that. She was too scared. Tessa just closed her eyes and gripped the seat even harder. She was probably going to leave marks, but that wasn’t high on her list of problems.

“Let's see if you bastards can do ninety.” This caused Tessa to open her eyes again only to see everything start flashing around her. Followed by something crashing into the car. 

Tessa would later deny ever doing so, but the sight of the poorly made scarecrow combined with Marty's screaming was the last nail in the coffin. Tessa completely blacked out. 


	3. Weird Family Meetings

“Tessa? Tessa?! Oh, God, please don’t be dead!” 

Tessa opened her eyes and rubbed her head. 

“Marty what the he-” 

Out of nowhere, Marty slammed his foot on the break. Tessa felt her body jump forward.

“What the shit, McFly!” 

“Sorry, it’s just-“

Marty trailed off. He just got out of the car to look at some sign with the name of Lyon Estates.

Tessa felt everything come rushing back. She suddenly had the urge to throw up. She managed not to do so, and just sat back down in the car. 

Her head was still pounding from the stress of what was going on. She started rubbing her temples to try and relieve a bit of the pain. She didn’t notice Marty making his way back to the car after trying and failing to get help from a passing couple.

“This is nuts.” Marty smacked the dashboard and tried to start the car. 

“For fu-” Marty was interrupted by a beeping. Tessa looked behind her and noticed that the beeping was coming from a fuel gauge marked ‘plutonium chamber’. She tapped a finger against it then turned to Marty. 

The two of them give each other confused looks. Neither of them knew what to do in this situation, and were freaking out a little bit.

“Okay okay, let’s just start by moving the car,” Tessa said. Trying really hard to remain calm.

“Um right, we can move it over there.”

Marty hopped out of the Delorean while Tessa moved to turn off the handbrake. The two of them quickly moved the car out of sight behind the cheesy looking Lyon Estates sign. Then got changed out of the hazmat suits and started making their way towards town.

_ What was that date Uncle Emmet mentioned? _

Tessa had spent the entire walk back to town trying to avoid thinking about what had just happened to her uncle. Instead, she was trying to distance herself with other thoughts. Like how she and Marty were gonna get home. 

Tessa knew that whatever was happening wasn’t a dream. The pain coming from her head (that was starting to fade after forty minutes of walking) hurt too much for it to be a dream.

By the time they made it to town, Tessa was ready to sit down. She could still feel a tiny bit of pain in the back of her head, and her legs were burning from the walk. 

As the two teens walked towards the Town Square, they kept glancing around the unfamiliar setting. Everything was the same, yet entirely different.

They stopped when hearing a sound ringing coming from the Courthouse. They glanced at each other with the same confused looks on their faces from the car. 

They moved on, and something caught Tessa’s attention. A large sign near the corner of the square caught Tessa's attention. 

WELCOME TO HILL VALLEY, it read. A NICE PLACE TO LIVE, PLEASE DRIVE CAREFULLY.

There were a bunch of symbols stuck onto it. Tessa honesty couldn’t tell you what half of them meant. Tessa continued looking at the sign while Marty grabbed a newspaper from the trash.

“This has got to be a dream.”

Tessa walked over to read the date on the paper. November 5, 1955.

_ Goddammit, my head! _

Tessa started rubbing the side of her head when she felt another spike of pain.

“Hey, you alright?” Marty asked.

“I… I think I need to sit down.”

Marty looked around for a second before his eyes landed on a nearby cafe. He grabbed Tessa’s hand and started taking her across the street to the sickly green corner shop.

“Hey, kid. You jump ship?” An older guy with the name tag Lou asked Marty as they entered.

“What?”

“What's with the life preserver?” If Tessa’s head didn’t hurt so much, she probably would have laughed that.

“I just want to use the phone.”

“It's in the back.”

Marty looked towards Tessa, who motioned for him to go ahead. While Marty rushed over to the phone, Tessa sat on the end of one of the booths.

“Are you going to get anything?” Lou asked Tessa. 

“Do you have any painkillers?” 

“If you want painkillers, go to the hospital.”

“OH, of course!” Tessa said sarcastically while pretending to hit her head. “How did I not think of that!”

Tessa and Lou glared at each other while Marty made his way back over.

“Do you know where 1640 Riverside…” Marty tried to ask Tessa before he was interrupted.

“Are you going to order, kid?” Lou asked again, clearly annoyed now.

“Ummm give me a Tab.” 

“I can't give you a tab unless you order something.”

Tessa sat there and watched as Marty tried to get anything off the guy. He eventually got a black coffee and Lou went about his business. She moved to sit next to Marty when another man came over, wanting to clean off the table.

Tessa tried to relax for a second to make her headache go away. Marty didn’t say anything, knowing that staying quiet would probably help the most for now. Marty simply placed his hand on the back of his head and tried to do what Tessa was doing. Relax.

…

….

…...

“McFly. What are you doing!?”

_ Oh, COME ON! _

“I'm talking to you, McFly, you Irish bug!” An intimidating guy stomped over to the kid sitting next to Marty. Followed by three lackeys with varying ridiculous outfits. 

One with a short, close-cropped haircut. One wearing a leather jacket and crewing on a match. The smallest one wearing a pair of 3-D glasses (seriously, what the hell). For some strange reason, they looked kinda familiar.

“Biff. Guys. How are you doing?” The kid asked as Biff loomed over him.

“You got my homework finished?”

“Actually, I figured since it wasn't due 'til Monday-” 

“Hello? Hello? Anybody home? Think, McFly. Think! I got to have time to recopy it.” Biff continued to give a speech that Tessa was sure this kid had heard a million times and will hear again and again.

Marty’s head kept snapping back and forth between Biff and the kid.

“What are you looking at, butthead?” Biff asked Marty.

“Get a load of his life preserver. Dork thinks he's going to drown.” One of the yes-men said while grabbing Marty’s vest.

Tessa looked over to Marty, who seemed to be having a hard time processing what was going on.

“How about my homework, McFly?” Biff went back terrorising the kid.

“Okay, Biff. I'll finish that up tonight, and then I'll bring it over first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Not too early. I sleep in Sundays. Your shoe's untied!” This caused the kid to look down and get smacked in the face by Biff. “Don't be so gullible, McFly. I don't want to see you in here again.”

“Okay. Alright. Bye-bye.” 

Everything went quiet after the highschoolers rushed out of the stop into a black ford and drove off. Tessa approached the window, trying to remember where she had seen them before. After a few seconds of thinking, Tessa realised where she had seen them before.

The one in the leather jacket was her bloody dad, and the other three were his stupid co-workers that helped make Tessa and her mother’s more miserable. Before Tessa could really start thinking about that fact, a voice took her out of her thoughts.

“What?!” The kid from before yelled at Marty.

“You're George McFly!”

It didn’t take much more info for Tessa to connect the dots. The kid was a younger version of Marty’s dad. 

“Yeah. Who are you?”

“Don’t answer, don’t answer, don-” Tessa muttered under her breath.

“Why do you let those boys push you around like that for?”

_ Oh, thank god. _

“They're bigger than me. “

“Stand tall. Have some respect for yourself. If you let people walk over you now, they'll walk over you the rest of your life. Look at me. You think I'll spend my life in this slop house?”

“Watch it, Goldie,” Lou said as he passed by. 

“No, sir! I'll do something. I'll go to night school. One day, I'm going to be somebody.” Goldie continued, happily ignoring the older man.

“That's right. He's going to be mayor!” Marty blurted out.

Tessa lightly smacked Marty’s shoulder in an attempt to get him to stop talking.

“Yeah, I'm… Mayor! Now that's a good idea! I could run for mayor.”

“A coloured mayor? That'll be the day.” Lou said. 

“Wait and see. I will be mayor. I'll be the most powerful man in Hill Valley... and I'm going to clean up this town.” Goldie said, confidently.

“Good. You can start by sweeping the floor.” Lou joked as he passed a broom to Goldie.

“Mayor Goldie Wilson. I like the sound of that.”

_ Huh, good for him. _

“Hey, Dad! George! Hey, you on the bike!” 

Tessa watched as Marty ran outside after his father. She stood there for a second before deciding to follow him. 

“Why do I get the feeling he’s gonna die if I leave him alone?” Tessa asked herself as she ran out the door.

Tessa caught up with Marty after chasing him into an unfamiliar street. (Then again, everything was unfamiliar at this point.

“Marty, slow down,” Tessa said before Marty abruptly stopped. Causing her knock into him. 

Before Tessa could say anything, she noticed the bike that Marty’s dad was riding and looked up when she heard something rustling in the trees. She looked up to George with a pair of binoculars looking into…. Oh god.

“He’s a peeping Tom,” Marty said with a look of utter shame on his face.

“That’s just so many kinds of wrong,” Tessa said in disgust. 

Tessa heard a snap and watched as George fell to the ground. This wouldn’t be a huge deal if it wasn’t for the car heading towards. 

Marty rushed past her to push his dad out of the way. She tried in vain to grab him but didn’t get a good enough grip on him.

Tessa let out a scared yelp when she saw Marty fall to the ground. She moved over as fast as she could and started checking for injuries. The driver made his way over to see what had just happened.

He looked down at Marty and Tessa, before turning his head to George.

“Wait a minute. Who are you?”

This caused George to book it. Tessa didn’t say anything due to wanting to make sure Marty wasn’t dead. 

“Stella! Another one of these damn kids jumped in front of my car! Come out here! Help me take him in the house!”

A woman, who must have been Stella, came out of some of the nearby houses and helped Tessa and her husband move Marty inside. They put him in one of the upstairs bedrooms and Tessa left to sit awkwardly in the living room of these random strangers.

Tessa was at the point where she was ready to pass out again. She didn’t due to not wanting to let her guard down near these people.

“Your friend is gonna be fine,” Stella said as she walked into the room. “What on earth were kids your age doing playing out in the street?”

“We weren't-” Tessa stopped herself. She knew that acting crabby around these people wasn’t worth it.

“And with the way you're dressed as well,” Stella said, motioning to the sleeveless top and the way she was wearing her jacket around her waist. Tessa pressed her lips together to keep her mouth shut. She didn’t like what this woman was implying.

“What’s your name dear?”

“Oh...I um,” Tessa shuddered. Could she give her real name? “C.. Carrie... Weaver?”

Stella asked her a few more questions before leaving to do housework, and Tessa was left sitting there for what felt like hours. She later put her jacket back on when one of the younger kids asked her what ACDC meant. She honestly felt kinda dumb for not thinking about that. The kids continued to pester her while another girl walked into the house. Tessa was too distracted by the kids to notice her. 

After about another two hours, Tessa heard voices coming from the stairs.

“Tell me, Marty, how long have you been in port?” Stella asked.

“Excuse me?” 

“I guessed you're a sailor. That's why you wear that life preserver. Coast guard. Sam, here's the young man you hit with your car. He's all right. Thank God.” 

“What were you doing in the middle of the street?” Sam popped out from behind a TV set and asked. 

“Don't pay attention to him. He's in one of his moods. Quit fiddling with that thing. Come in here to dinner. You already know Lorraine. This is Milton, this is Sally... that's Toby, and over there in the playpen is little baby Joey.” 

Marty kneeled down to look at the small blonde child. Tessa moved to kneel next to him.

“So, you're my uncle Joey. Better get used to these bars, kid.” 

“I’m going to be an optimist for once, and assume that’s a family joke.”

“Yes. Joey just loves being in his playpen. He cries whenever we take him out, so we leave him in there all the time. Well, Marty, Carrie, I hope you like meatloaf.”

‘Well, listen, we’d really ought to-”

“Sit here, Marty.“ Lorraine said as she pushed out a chair for Marty to sit in.

Tessa sat down, and Marty gave her a look that said ‘we have to get out of here as soon as possible’.

“Sam, stop fiddling with that thing and come in here and eat your dinner.“

“Look at it roll. Now we can watch Jackie Gleason while we eat. 

“Our first television set. Dad just picked it up today.” Lorraine said. “Do you have a television?” 

“Well, yeah. You know, we have two of them.” 

“Wow! You must be rich.” 

“Ha ha, he's teasing you,” Tessa said. She turned to Marty with gritted teeth. “Nobody has two television sets.”

Tessa had never been too good at history, but she had always been good at picking up on implications. After a painfully awkward conversation about reruns, Stella turned to Marty.

“You know, Marty, you look so familiar to me. Do I know your mother?”

“Yeah, I think maybe you do,” Marty said while looking towards Lorraine.

“Then I'll call her. I don't want her to worry about you.”

“You can't. That is nobody's home. I mean-” 

“We’re staying with relatives!” Tessa finished.

“Yes, right, exactly,” Marty said while pointing at Tessa. ”Do you know where Riverside Drive is?”

“It's on the other end of town. A block past Maple. East end of town.” Sam said without taking his eyes off the TV.

“A block past Maple,” Marty muttered. 

“That's John F. Kennedy Drive, isn’t it?” Tessa asked him.

“Who the hell is John F. Kennedy?” Sam asked.

“Mother? With Marty's parents out of town... don't you think he ought to spend the night? After all, Dad almost killed him with the car.” Lorraine said. Marty started shaking his head.

“That's true. I think you two should spend the night. I think you're our responsibility.“

“Well, gee, I don't know,” Marty said and looked to Tessa for help.

“Yeah, you know, we can't keep those relatives waiting.”

“He can sleep in my room.” Lorraine continued.

_ Did she just ignore me? _

Marty unexpectedly shot up from his chair.

“I got to go! Thanks very much. You were all great. See you all later. Much later.”

“Yep, bye. This has been… really weird.” Tessa said as she followed Marty out the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big thanks to the OC discord (specifically Siobhan), for helping me come up with Tessa’s fake name. 
> 
> For anyone wondering it's a combination of Carrie Fisher and Sigourney Weaver.
> 
> Also, can we all agree that these are some of the worst ways to meet your future in-laws?

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to Power of Love. A new story that I should not be starting, but hey…. I have no excuse. 
> 
> If you wanna see more stuff for Tessa or my other OCs check out https://thecaillic.tumblr.com/
> 
> Feedback is adored and I will risk my life for you.


End file.
